Some of us at New Wine, New Wineskins were discussing God’s triune being of communal love the other day. In thinking through the implications, I said to one friend (which I also posted on Facebook):
In short, as I see it, God is a holy, loving communion of divine and eternal persons. At the core of God’s being, we find holy, interpersonal love. God is relational to the depths of his being. Love always requires an object. In the divine life, there is mutuality and reciprocity. Such love flows out from the Godhead into the world. While God does not need us, God does not use us either. God longs to have communion with us, for God is communal, and God’s glorious love is expansive and inclusive. The church as a Trinitarian community is first and foremost being-driven, not purpose-driven, as Brad Harper and I say in Exploring Ecclesiology. The church’s purposes and activities must flow out of this sense of relationality. Instead of “I think, therefore, I am” or “I shop at Wal-Mart and Macy’s, therefore I am” or “I have a job, therefore I am,” the model here is “I am loved by God, therefore I am.”